There’s a lot of fight in the cartoonish thriller ‘Flight’
Josh Hartnett winging it, kicking ass on an airliner, is just plane fun. So much so, you hardly mind that the unfriendly skies of “Fight or Flight” are intermittently turbulent. You just go with it.
Between taking off in Bangkok and its scheduled landing some 10 hours later in San Francisco, heads will literally roll, chainsaws will buzz and seat belts will be refashioned into garrotes. And there’s no way out, no retreat. It’s either kill or be killed. And the one doing most of the massacring is Hartnett’s disgraced Secret Service agent Lucas Reyes.
It’s his last chance at redemption, courtesy of his former lover, Katherine Brunt (Katee Sackhoff), who would rather it be anyone but this alcoholic sad sack dispatched to seek out and capture a mysterious tech genius known only as the Ghost. Alas, about three or four dozen other mercenaries are on the identical mission, and all of them are booked on the same trans-Pacific flight aboard the massive double-decker A380 Airbus.
If the plot triggers recollections of “Bullet Train” or “Kill,” you’ve arrived at the right gate. Just expect a lot more absurdity, something closer to a Looney Tunes cartoon with Hartnett as the Roadrunner and everyone else as Wile E. Coyote.
Fueled by alcohol and toad venom, Lucas has no idea what he’s doing. He’s operating on the assumption that everyone who approaches him is an assailant that must be felled by any means necessary. To that end, rookie director James Madigan devises highly inventive ways for Lucas to mow them down in the aisles, with an occasional assist from three srewd flight attendants, including the beautiful Isha (Charithra Chandran). She’s got game, for sure. With her around, it’s coffee, tea, or bleed.
And if you’d like sugar with that, writers D.J. Cotrona and Brooks McLaren set the stage for an enemies-to-lovers romance that may or may not pan out. But given Madigan’s audacity to lay the groundwork for a sequel, might we be seeing more of them as a couple? One can hope because the two actors mesh well. Not as winning a pair as you’d like. But well enough to get the job done.
That, in a nutshell, is “Fight or Flight,” a movie that always delivers just enough to keep you engaged, which is remarkable given the convoluted plot and utter lack of character development. But it does have Hartnett, who overcomes a slight miscast with his good energy vibes, even when Lucas is lopping off limbs or using his head to pound broken martini glasses into the thick skulls of his growing list of would-be assassins.
Hartnett’s been on a roll of late with “Oppenheimer” and last summer’s “Trap.” And as he enters his mid-40s, he becomes more than just another pretty face. He’s developed some real acting chops, which serve him well in a film that demands more than just looking studly. He manages to project a certain endearing goofiness essential to the role. He’s no Liam Neeson or Jason Statham when it comes to busting heads, but for this short, breezy 102-minute “Flight,” he more than holds his own.
Movie review
Fight or Flight
Rated: R for language throughout, strong bloody violence, some drug material
Cast: Josh Hartnett, Charithra Chandran, Katee Sackhoff, Julian Kostov and Juju Chan Szeto
Director: James Madigan
Writers: D.J. Cotrona and Brooks McLaren
Runtime: 102 minutes
Where: In theaters on May 9
Grade: B-
